The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin
"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine
"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review
"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
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I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to sell stories, to make a living as an artist, and how there are parallels with how hard it is to publish papers and to secure grants in science. There are some key differences, of course, but there’s something powerful in common, too. As an artist, a […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>For a change, I’m not talking about science here. I think some of the Star Trek technology will be realized in the future, and some is pure fantasy. Still, I give them credit for trying on that front. I just wish they’d avoid the time travel…but I have already digressed. The issue I want to […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »>I was reading some internet forum recently where someone suggested that since parsecs were based on local geometry (how stars appear to move in the sky because of the Earth’s own motion around the sun), no one would use the unit more generally. Except that astronomers, do, all the time. Sometimes movie directors do, too […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>OK, I know that probably sounds obscene, but I’m hard pressed to come up with a name for what I want to talk about. What I’m talking about probably exists, but I’m not familiar enough with fantasy these days to know for sure, so I hope someone can help me out. Urban fantasy has been […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »>The Matrix is a pretty cool movie, a modern classic with an interesting premise and innovative special effects. I always had a problem with it, related to the premise. Some spoilers may follow. Here’s my problem scene: I’m not going to question the information about how much electricity or heat a human being can generate. […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments »>I’m working on my seminar about science in the movies, and one of the concepts discussed will be what happens when you chuck someone out an airlock without a space suit. We know what happens. There was a poor guy who had an accident in a high-altitude chamber in the 1960s and lived to tell […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments »>First, I’m not picking on Charlie Stross particularly. It’s just that I’d been meaning to read his work for many years now, and finally got the chance with the purchase of a Kindle. In addition to a couple of his novels, I downloaded his award-nominated story “Lobsters” that I recall hearing many great things about. […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »>Not every scientist has an interest in science fiction or anything resembling the ability to think like a science fiction writer. I was reminded of this again today in regard to this story about how to focus SETI searches. Basically, the idea is that it is easier in principle to find and characterize Earth-like planets […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »>This is a favorite topic of mine. I love stories and I love science, and science fiction movies combine these. Unfortunately one or the other usually suffers from the combination. Still, for the purposes of education, getting the science wrong can be as instructive as getting it right, if not more so. I have been […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments »>In many important ways, science fiction rules the world, but is regularly dismissed by the public at large. I’m going to use an expansive definition of science fiction, as opposed to my usually more rigid definition that demands some adherence to science, and open this up to speculative fiction in general and nearly all novel, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »>I’m a month late commenting on this list of the 15 greatest science fiction writers of all time, but I will comment and offer my own. 15. Larry Niven“ 14. Philip Jose’ Farmer“ 13. Robert Silverberg“ 12. Ursula K. Le Guin“ 11. Harry Harrison“ 10. Frederick Pohl 9. Frank Herbert“ 8. Harlan Ellison“ 7. Jack […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments »>Overblown title for something much more subtle, but profound and cool. Scientists have discovered evidence of several supernovas in Antarctic ice cores. The evidence is a spike in the concentration of nitrogen oxide, an expected effect from a flood of gamma rays hitting our atmosphere. Two of the three spikes found match known supernovas observed […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>